This invention relates to automatic vending machines and, in particular, to machines for vending foods which are provided with apparatus for cooking the food which has been just sold.
Recently, processed and dried foodstuffs contained in cups have been produced and commercially sold which are readily cooked by pouring boiled water thereon, if necessary, followed by mixing. Such foods include for example, processed and dried noodles, rices, curry and rice, stew and so on which are contained in cups.
In selling cups containing such processed foodstuffs (which will be referred as "cup-foods" hereinafter), automatic vending machines may be employed. But if the employed machine is one having only a vending function without any provision for applying boiled water to the food, a purchaser of the cup-foods cannot eat them instantly.
A vending machine has been used for selling cup-foods, which is provided with a cooking apparatus, so that a purchaser can instantly cook the vended cup-food by the use of the cooking apparatus and eat it.
Such cooking apparatus comprises a cooking chamber with a door and a hot water, or boiled water, feeding device, which is arranged in a housing of the vending machine.
The purchaser opens the door of the cooking chamber to put the purchased cup-foods into the chamber, and then closes the door. Thereafter, he pushes a cooking button which is provided to control the feeding of single cup quantities of boiled water. Thus boiled water is poured into the cup within the cooking chamber to cook the cup-foods.
In the known cooking apparatus used in the vending machine, the door of the cooking chamber may be opened at any time, and boiled water is poured into the cooking chamber at any time when the cooking button is pushed. Therefore, the cooking apparatus can be tampered with causing the introduction of dirt or foreign matter into the interior of the cooking chamber so that it cannot be maintained clean. In case the preserved boiled water is wasted by pouring it into the chamber at the wrong times, the cooking apparatus becomes inoperable.
Moreover, since boiled water could be poured into the cooking chamber even when the door is open, the user may be scalded with resulting serious injury.